David and Goliath

This week has been spent actually down in the yards, touring panel assembly lines (cutting and welding metal into bigger more recognizable shapes in non-engineer speak), as well as the dry docks. For the dry dock tour, we were taken under a ship and then climbed through openings in ballast tanks and into bulkheads. We went through the deckhouse and even got to touch a propeller. If there is something to see on a ship, we saw it. However, the most fascinating event on our schedule was called the 'Goliath Experience.'

Hyundai Heavy Industries has a series of gantry cranes (referenced in my Goldilocks post from June 21st) and apparently they are referred to as Goliath sometimes. We got to go up in one of the cranes capable of lifting up to 900 tons at one time and here is the story:

Conquering the behemoth does not require the rock and slingshot that the biblical allegory proposes (this Goliath is made of steel too, so a conveniently placed rock won't do much). Instead, you enter its mass through a story of stairs into one of its massive legs. An elevator sized appropriately to make Robert Langdon wince (pop culture reference) travels up on an angled track over 100 meters and takes around 90 seconds to complete the journey. After two carloads of students and employees reconnect outside the elevator, we are taken up a few more flights of stairs on top of the crane. At this point we are instructed not to look down, exit the enclosed steel confines of the supporting structure and head up to our destination close to 120 meters above the ground (likely not even including the depth of the dry dock we're standing over. Temptation wins and the sensation induced by the thought of my own mortality makes the experience all the more worthwhile.

Following a tour through the mechanical components that make this machine work, we are taken down yet more flights to the crane operator's booth. We expect to just glance inside as it seems like we're not authorized to enter, but this is the 'Goliath Experience' after all. In traditional Korean fashion, we are asked to remove our boots prior to entering the booth which is more like a glorified video game system on anabolic steroids. As if it is generous enough for them to allow us to enter the operator's booth, we are also given the opportunity to sit in the solitary chair and place our hands on the very joysticks that make this shipyard capable of its most revered feats. If that is what it feels like to have so much power in your hands then I may finally understand why Kim Jong-Il (political reference) works so hard to protect his regime. As I go to stand up after my photo opp (we have to wait until the completion of an internal approval process to get our pictures taken by HHI employees), the crane operator grabs my right hand. At first I think he is trying to pull me out of the seat quickly but then I am being pushed back in the seat and my hand placed on the right joystick. Suddenly the joystick is moving backward guided by my hand... guided by the crane operator's hand and the load, this time just a bunch of steel cables, begins to rise off of the ground. The operator's hand subsides but I'm instructed to keep the crane going making me perhaps the only American person ever to operate an HHI gantry crane, even if it only lasted for half a minute. And as if the gantry crane hospitality were not enough, we were then offered tea and coffee there for a break... over 70 meters above the ground level.

There is an element of courtesy extended to us everywhere we go. As a purely factual statement, we tend stand out due to our race and as a result, unintentionally solicit questions as to where we are from (attention I actually quite like), but I'm under the impression that regardless of our special treatment around the shipyard, that Korea is a friendly place to live or travel. We even enjoyed shooting the breeze with the Vice President in charge of all of Shipyard 1's (the bigger yard with 9 dry docks opposed to the offshore yard) production with the same level of intrigue and courtesy as the unknown line worker, a positive statement for both positions.

Until next time,

-David Rood